The Long White Cloud

Our final stop of great Australia tour was Brisbane. An evening walk from our Hotel, Novotel Brisbane, to Eagle Street Pier is a relaxing and nice highlight of the city. Although there was just one nice street down from our hotel to Eagle Street Pier, we preferred to turn rights and lefts, to explore Queen Street Mall and the little streets around for some final shopping opportunities.

Colorful shops

Very colorful shops, lots of happy looking people, on street music performances and “happy hour” fans overflowing from the on street cafes and bars. So nice to walk around and enjoy.

An interesting cross walk

Another highlight of the area is a very little park: Anzac Square. This park consists of many monuments to remember Anzac’s who have been to various wars around the world. If you ever go to Dardalles in Turkey, visit the memorial parks and learn the stories of Anzac’s came from such a far country died at a meaningless war, this little park means a lot to you. I recommend you to read the novel The Long White Cloud-Gallipoli of Buket Uzuner. A novel about a young New-Zealander woman coming to Gallipoli to find the lost grave of her great-grandfather who died in the Battle of Gallipoli, and the stunning eighty-five year old secret of a Turkish granny strolling in the Gallipoli National Park with her cane. (www.buketuzuner.com).

Lightened up buildings

After a couple of hours, there we were finally at Pony Dining; a heaven for meat lovers like us, on Eagle Street Pier.

Wine of the evening, with menu

The wine of the evening is from Voyager Estates Girt by Sea, Cabarnet Merlot, a perfect match with well cooked steak and fried brains.

Fried brains after 30 years

The last time I ate pan fried brains was when I was 10-years-old or so. My mom was not a vegetarian than, brain was in her “very healthy” list and fried food were not added to “black list” of our diets. So she quite often cooked it, pan fried or boiled which I loved both. So it was a nice surprise to find it in the menu. Actually, there is a good steakhouse in the city where we live and we go there quite often. We advised the chef to add this to the menu a couple of times, but unfortunately he still did not do so.

A great combination of tastes

All other plates we ordered were inventively combined tastes of sweet and bitters. The atmosphere was also very nice, lots of wood with black and red.

Buttered breads

This probably will be my final post about Australia. I hope you enjoyed our adventures and my posts. Let me know if you need any other advice or if any of my posts help you in planning your trips.